Dodgers Injury Notes: Seager, Hatcher, Urías, Ethier & More

If there’s one secondary detail that’s currently being overshadowed by the scorching hot play of the Dodgers right now, it’s the fact that there are still several serious injuries to players which don’t appear to be improving anytime soon. In most cases, the tremendous organizational depth of the club covers just about any type of potential ailment, yet in the case of one certain shortstop, fans everywhere are hoping for just a very minor hiccup.

According to Ken Gurnick of MLB.com, reigning NL Rookie of the Year Corey Seager will undergo an MRI exam on his right leg on Saturday to determine whether he suffered a simple cramp on something much more severe with his hamstring.

Seager left the game at the end of the second inning. He said he felt something when he swung his bat and on his first step out of the box during his two-out RBI single, and again when he took an awkward step as he advanced to second base on the throw. Seager remained in the game and scored from second on Justin Turner‘s single, but he went straight from the dugout to the clubhouse with a trainer immediately after crossing the plate.

“It tightened up and felt more like a cramp than anything, and coming around third, there was no point to push it,” Seager told Gurnick. “I’ve had a bunch in the past and I know when it’s not really bad. It was one of those that could have loosened up easily. Coming around third, I could have stayed in. I’ve done that in the past and made it way worse.”

Gurnick also pointed out that Seager has endured four previous hamstring injuries, two in each leg, partially tearing his left hamstring and dealing with moderate strains the other three times.

An updated is expected sometime prior to the beginning of Saturday evening’s contest against the Rockies. (Update: Seager suffered a grade one hamstring strain according to Dave Roberts, and is day-to-day at this point.)

Before the series against their divisional rival even began, the club placed righty reliever Chris Hatcher on the 10-day disabled list with joint inflammation near his spine in his lower back. He last pitched on Thursday night against the Mets, allowing the tying run the seventh frame during his 1-1/3 innings of relief. In 26 relief appearances this season, the 32-year-old has gone 0-1 with a 4.66 ERA and has struck out 43 batters against 12 walks. He was replaced on the 25-man roster by right-hander Ross Stripling.

Hatcher is the 23rd different player to be placed on the disabled list by the Dodgers in 2017, six players short of the major league record set by the team in 2016.

In what could be among the most crushing injury news of the 2017 campaign, the Dodgers also announced on Friday that 20-year-old Julio Urias will undergo left-shoulder surgery and miss the remainder of the season.

“Obviously, there are a lot of unknowns in what you do on this,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “I think all of us feel very confident that if we didn’t protect him at all over the last couple of years it could have happened sooner, it could have happened in a more significant way. I think all of us believe if it was going to happen, it could have been worse.”

Urias is scheduled to have his left anterior capsule repaired Tuesday by Dr. Neal ElAttrache, the Dodgers’ head physician. Friedman said Urias was expected to be sidelined for 12-14 months.

First baseman Adrian Gonzalez says he isn’t setting a target date for his return from a herniated disk and is prepared to miss the better part of the next month rehabbing the injury.

Gonzalez, who was placed on the disabled list for the second time this season on June 13, said he could return to the team in late July.

“This time around, I’m not going to rush,” Gonzalez said earlier in the week. “Obviously, I felt fine, but then the more baseball I played, the more it started to stiffen up. I think slower is better than faster right now, at this point.”

There’s still been no progress with veteran Andre Ethier‘s back injury, and Roberts on Wednesday afternoon told reporters that the new timetable set for the veteran’s return has been pushed back to September 1.

The 35-year-old outfielder has appeared in only 16 games since 2015 and has been sidelined since spring training with a herniated disk.

I think we should just figure that Agon and for sure Ethier will not be of much use in 2017. The loss of Urias would have seemed much worse if he were actually in the rotation at this point. That being said, I hope it’s only a blip in his long career. Shoulder injuries are difficult and in spite of the 12-14 month prognosis, they always seem to take longer than anticipated. I am not expecting him to be of much help in 2018. Both Kemp and Ryu came back at much less than optimum skill levels the first go round. It wasn’t until the season following the season they returned that they began to look a little more like the players we knew.
Since Friedman & Co like to set records, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Seager hit the 10-day DL, in spite of your update that it’s only a Grade-1. That might serve to give us our first exposure to Calhoun or Verdugo. Would also be a way to showcase them in case they were thinking of including them in a trade.